Same as it Ever Was

Today is my birthday, and this year it snuck up on me. I've been so focused on everything else going on that I pushed turning 34 to the back of my mind, and even yesterday when a friend called to say happy birthday I had a brief moment of thinking that I had lost a day and had forgotten about it altogether. But today is the big day, and I'm feeling quite ambivalent about the occasion. This is one of those days where I feel like the Talking Heads song "Once in a Lifetime" is the soundtrack to my life:

" And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile,

And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife.

And you may ask yourself... well, how did I get here?"

Life seems to be moving so fast - yesterday I was a new wife working on a career, and the next minute I was a new mom with a premature baby in my arms, and then a few seconds later I was staying home to raise three kids and putting that first tiny baby on the bus to go to kindergarten. How did I get here?

I set my camera up on Riley's dresser and snapped this quick photo of us this morning, because I felt the need to capture the memory of this day - of me being 34 and her being little still. Looking at it I feel very blessed to have the people I have in my life, and although I have no idea how I got here, I just feel lucky that I am.

It's My Party...

Tomorrow is Connor's 3rd birthday, so in honor of that I had to post this picture. I submitted it as an entry in a contest my web hosting company was having to celebrate their birthday. I didn't win the contest, but I did end up with this super cute photo of him. I'm hoping he wears a much different expression at his party tomorrow.

Another First

Connor's first day of 3 yr-old preschool was today, and if you can't tell by the expression on his face, he was pretty excited. His teacher told me he had a great morning and was an "awesome listener". I double checked to make sure she had the right kid, and she did. I am now making plans to spy on the class to discover her secrets.

We're Jammin'

I've been making an effort lately to try and be more conscious of the foods we consume alot of around here, and more importantly, the ingredients contained in those foods. I did some research on Red Dye #40 after a conversation with a friend in MOMs Club, and without getting on a soapbox, I'll just say that it probably will not hurt to eliminate it from our diets (some studies have shown that it increases aggressive behavior and attention deficit in kids who may be naturally sensitive to the dye). I realized that I was serving up a healthy dose of red dye to my kids at almost every meal of the day, and I figured that even if it poses no harm to my family, it isn't a necessary part of our diet and so it couldn't hurt to eliminate as much of it as possible. The kids all eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch just about every day, so strawberry jelly seemed like a natural place to start. When I read the label on the store bought jelly, I was surprised that it contained a whole host of ingredients that I didn't recognize, and, of course, Red Dye 40. I headed over to the natural foods section, but went into to sticker shock when I saw that a 6 oz jar of organic jelly was on sale for $6! Since I didn't want to take out a second mortgage to keep my family in jelly, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own jelly.

I did a bit of internet research on canning, and was tempted to buy a canning kit, but the whole boiling and sealing and possible bacteria contamination scared the bejeezus out of me (I'm still interested in giving it a whirl, so if any of you out there can, please comment with any tips, suggestions, etc. I'm hoping that next year's garden will be bigger and yield more produce so that I could at least can tomatoes and green beans for the winter). As luck would have it, the grocery had freezer jars and freezer pectin on sale, so with those supplies and a couple of pounds of fresh strawberries in hand, I gave freezer jam a try.

Casey was home from school and wanted to help me make the jam, so he became my co-pilot for this adventure. By far, the best part of the whole experience was when I handed him the big ziploc full of strawberries to crush with a rolling pin. He approached the bag of berries and announced, "Ha-ha strawberries! You're no match for me!" and proceeded to whack the hell out of them. The jam could have turned out crap and I would still have called it a success because I'm still laughing over that line. I used half Splenda in this recipe to reduce the sugar because I had read that using all Splenda could result in runny jam. We tossed in some blackberries from the freezer for a little extra flavor and color. When the jam had a chance to set up we tasted it and were pretty proud of ourselves. It is sweet but also a little tart, and we all seem to prefer the flavor and consistency of our jam over the store bought. Casey colored some labels, and when it was all said and done we had 5 jars of jam for just slightly more than the cost of one jar of organic from the store.



So one food from the dye list down, about 150 to go. I'm not foolish enough to think that I can control every single thing that goes into my kids' mouths or ensure that 100% of what we eat is totally healthy (nor would I want to - I'm pretty sure my system would go into shock if I cut out beer and chocolate and the kids might revolt if I took away their Goldfish crackers), but I feel better that I'm taking small steps to help us make some better choices. Plus, after Casey's destruction of the strawberries I'm kinda' anxious to see how he tackles tomatoes. I suspect they'll be no match for him either.

TGIFS

Thank God it's Football Season.

A Girl After My Own Heart

Riley spoke her first full sentence yesterday. In keeping with the old adage "the sweet tooth apple doesn't fall far from the sweet tooth tree", she walked up to me in the kitchen and clearly said, "I want a cookie". I mean, clearly announced it - I didn't have to use my skills as a future UN interpreter at all. I was so proud I gave her the cookie, even though it was 9 am.

I'll have to check with Mom, but I'm pretty sure my first sentence was, "I want pancakes." So, like I said, she comes by it naturally.

The Year of the Tomato

We enjoyed a lovely evening last night at the State Fair. I don't remember being a huge fan of the fair as a kid, but I've come to look forward to Indiana's and it is one of my favorite summertime activities. This year's theme is "The Year of the Tomato", which I find slightly ironic considering the late blight that is affecting so many tomato plants in the northeast. I thought for a minute that my tomato plants had the disease, but now I think I'm just a garden hypochondriac. Anyway, first we hit the midway so the boys could enjoy some rides.


I wasn't crazy about the look this guy was giving me, and I'm pretty sure that's a gang sign he's flashing. We let the kids ride anyway.



We walked through the cattle barn, the sheep barn, and the swine barn. Connor was brave enough to crawl in this pen and pet a baby cow. It's a tough call on which of them is cuter.



I was seriously tempted. I mean, I love bacon. And I love chocolate. But we walked by this booth right after visiting the baby pigs, and something about it just didn't feel right. Plus, earlier in the evening I ate a tenderloin sandwich the size of a VW bug, so I had already hit my pork limit for the week.



We did swing by the dairy barn on the way out for dessert. The dairy barn might be my very favorite part of the fair. They have kid's meals with a grilled cheese sandwich, apple slices, and milk for $4 (a bargain at the fair!), they fill sippy cups with milk for free, and they serve the most delicious milkshakes and ice cream. That's Riley above demanding, I mean, asking nicely for more of my chocolate milkshake.

All that, and I haven't even covered the giant cheese sculpture, the antique tractor parade, or watching Clydesdale horses being unloaded from their truck. Or that The Oak Ridge Boys were in concert and so we danced our way back to the car as we left. Even with the blight, I'd say the year of the tomato was a successful one.

Catching Up

This is a pretty common view from my vantage point these days. Riley works so hard to catch up to those brothers. I think we're all holding our breath a bit to see what happens when she does.

This is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

Or at least I'm sure that's how it felt this morning for Casey as he stepped on the school bus for the very first time. I'm finding it very hard to believe that he is old enough to be a kindergardener, and I certainly felt a little lump in my throat as he boarded the big yellow bus. However, seeing the genuine joy and excitement on his face made me very proud, and having met his new teacher and seen the school, I shared in his joy because I knew he was going to be in good hands.

His father, on the other hand, followed the bus to school and videotaped him getting off the bus and walking to his classroom. And secretly I was glad he did.

Catch and Release

Rob took the boys fishing yesterday, and I have to admit I was suspicious of how much "fishing" would actually occur. I was once again proven wrong when the boys came home with a memory card full of photos from their adventure, including this pic of Casey's first catch. Thankfully since I know nothing about cleaning fish, this was a strictly catch & release outing. In addition to the fellow in the picture they caught a few more smaller fish and one pretty decent sized catfish. They all seemed to have alot of fun (except the meltdown Casey experienced when Connor lost part of his pole in the pond), but considering the condition they were in when they returned home, I'm not sure that they'll be going again any time soon.

Clutch Play

Whew. I just put the finishing touches on an order of custom clutch purses from etsy, and it looks like I've been running a mini clutch purse sweat shop out of my basement work area. The bride has seen photos of her bags, and has given her stamp of approval and is excited to get them in hand. It was fun to design and put these together, and I got some warm fuzzies knowing that I was making something that was going to be a part of a special day. But I think I'm going to have to take a break from the custom work. Something about a looming deadline makes me crazy, and even when I have budgeted my time wisely something always interrupts my schedule - someone gets sick, someone has a birthday, family comes for a visit (or in the case of last week, all of the above). Or maybe I should just take a break from accepting orders of 12 bags at a time. Something less stressful. Maybe just 6 bags at a time...

One of These Guys Turned 5 Yesterday

Here's a hint: it is not the 6'5", 230 pound quarterback with a rocket arm.

The Foamerator

I'm always on the lookout for something fun and easy to occupy the kids during those periods of time I like to call "the witching hours" - those pockets of time that if left unplanned will ultimately result in the boys rolling on the floor fighting while Riley scales the kitchen pantry in her never-ending quest to eat everything not nailed down. I saw this craft in Family Fun magazine, and so this afternoon we made "bubble snakes". Aside from occasionally inhaling the bubbles, everyone had fun making them and playing with the bubbles, and it did eat up some of the witching hours. Now if I can just find something to occupy the remaining 8 hours, I might survive another Monday.

Better Than a Quidditch Stick in the Eye

I'm missing most of the hoopla surrounding the new Harry Potter movie because my kids aren't old enough for the books or movies, my husband has no interest in Harry Potter, and the chances of me getting out to see the movie on my own are about as likely as me riding my flying broom to the theater. Luckily, one of my favorite fabric designers and all around craft genius Heather Bailey has gotten completely carried away with Harry Potter mania, and has created several recipes and crafts to indulge in all your wizardry desires. The one I'm most likely to try is her recipe for Butterbeer, which I always wished I had a frosty mug of while reading the Harry Potter books. Now, if she would only get to work on an invisibility cloak...

Where are Those Frickin' Dwarfs Now?

This is one in a series of photographs by Dina Goldstein titled "Snowy", and I love it. Haven't we all felt like this at some point - like "This is NOT the Happy Ending I signed up for!". I'm a fan of this very theatrical style of photography, and although I feel several in her series go to far and unnecessarily reinforce some negative stereotypes, I think this one is brilliant. My favorite part about this photo is the fact that the prince is watching polo on the TV. Typical.

Lake Effect

We're back home from a quick weekend vacation to Lake Michigan. We rented an adorable cottage in Sawyer, MI that was a short walk to the beach and Warren Dunes state park. We managed to pack quite a bit of activity into a short amount of time - shopping, swimming, hanging out at the beach, long walks, cherry picking, wine tasting, and just meandering through the area. Traveling with 3 kids under 5 is tough, and we were all sleep deprived, but even with tired, hyped up kids we were able to have a great time. And even better was the fact we were able to take Ani with us, as we're pretty sure she would not have survived the sounds of fireworks on the 4th here by herself (I'm started to suspect she did a couple of tours in 'Nam, just judging by her behavior during thunderstorms and firework displays).

Everyone had a favorite part of the trip - Casey loved cherry picking, Connor loved the campfire we built (he had a weird Beavis & Butthead moment I wish we had captured on tape where he just stood transfixed by the flame and repeated "fire" over and over again in a slightly demented voice), and Riley loved the beach where she ate sand by the handfuls. I mean, alot of sand - to the point that I was concerned about how much sand an 18 month old child could safely consume, as I was pretty sure she had exceeded that mark. And I think Rob & I could agree that our favorite part was the few moments we stole Saturday night after the kids finally went to sleep and we sat by the fire pit and talked uninterrupted and ate smores (a special dark chocolate version I had saved just for us).

We really loved the area and are planning to return again. There was plenty we did not get a chance to do or see, and although we all could use a vacation to recover from our vacation, I'm already feeling the effects this morning of the wonderful memories we made our first weekend at the lake.

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When Good Costumes Go Bad

What happens when you wear 3 different Halloween costumes all at the same time, add a mullet wig, a toy saw & drill, and alot of attitude? If you're me, you get a free hour to cook dinner in peace.

Who's Your Daddy?

They say a good man is hard to find. Not so, I say. I found one 12 years ago, and according to Casey, "He's the best!". I know this is a day late, but I hope all the dads out there had a great Father's Day yesterday. Keep up the good work, gentlemen.

Butterflies are Free

Actually, they cost $5 for shipping and handling. But now our butterflies are free in the "Great God Almighty, free at last!" way. Casey received a butterfly habitat from his Nana for Christmas last year, and I promised him when the weather was good enough we would order the butterflies. He reminded me last month it was warm enough, so we sent off for and received our live caterpillars in the mail. We watched them turn into chrysalis', and then hatch into painted lady butterflies. We released them yesterday, and were all surprised at how fast they flew out of the tent - I was only able to catch this one little guy with my camera. We really enjoyed this project, and all the supplies came from Insect Lore. Looking around on their site it appears they have some neat stuff (except the spider kit, which I think should be outlawed. Aren't we all trying to keep spiders out of our house? Ick.), and I'm considering ordering some more.

Some random business:

*Thank you to everyone who has offered sweet comments to me about my etsy shop. It is so hard to tell if what I'm doing is any good (I like it, but that doesn't mean anyone else on the planet will!), so hearing that you like it too makes me feel good. And I lied about not being able to do yarnwork in the summer. I made a baby cardigan over the weekend that will up in the shop this week. So cute. If you are expecting a baby you should beware. 

*We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last week, and look - Momma got new bling! I was so surprised by his beautiful and thoughtful gift that I almost fell out of my chair at the restaurant when he gave it to me. Ten diamonds (one for each year!) set in white gold. Sigh. He's a good man. I think I'll stay married to him for at least another 10. :)